Liquor-circulating device in a high-temperature and high-pressure dyeing machine

ABSTRACT

A liquor-circulating device in a high-temperature and highpressure dyeing machine is disclosed, which comprises a pump casing, a pressured vat connected to said casing, a perforated cylindrical support provided within said vat and having fabrics to be treated wound around its outer periphery, a fixed partition mounted between said pump casing and said pressured vat and having a pair of liquor flowing holes communicated respectively with the inside and outside of said cylindrical support, a switching valve provided within said pump casing and having a liquor delivery section and a liquor suction section, each of said sections including a liquor-communicating aperture shaped similarly and opposed to each of said liquor flowing holes, and a driving member for said switching valve, whereby said driving member may cause said switching valve to rotate to change the relative position between each said liquor-communicating aperture and each said liquor flowing hole in said fixed partition and thus accomplish an adjustment in the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor fed by means of a pump.

0 Waited States Patent [151 ammss Sate et al. [45] Jan. w, 1972 54] LIQUOR-CIRCULATING DEVICE IN A 3,092,990 6/1963 Schyns ..68/l89 HIGH-TEMPERATURE AND HIGH- 1" Q HIN Primary Examiner-William I. Price PRESSURE DYEING C E Attorneywenderoth, Lind & Ponack [72] Inventors: Mlkio Sato; Yoshiki ll-lohrai, both of Nagoya; Kozi Fuziyoshi, l-lekikai-gun, [57] ABSTRACT of Japan A liquor-circulating device in a high-temperature and high- [73] Assignee: Nlhon Senshoku Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha, pressure dyeing machine is disclosed, which comprises apump Kanie-cho, Ama-gun, Aichi Prefecture, casing, a pressured vat connected to said casing, a perforated Japan cylindrical support provided within said vat and having fabrics to be treated wound around its outer periphery, a fixed parti- [22] Flled' 1969 tion mounted between said pump casing and said pressured 21 A l. 305,649 vat and having a pair of liquor flowing holes communicated respectively with the inside and outside of said cylindrical support, a switching valve provided within said pump casing and Foreign pp Priority Data having a liquor delivery section and a liquor suction section, Apr. 4 1968 Japan ..43/22343 each of Said sections including a liquor'communicafing aper' ture shaped similarly and opposed to each of said liquor flow- [52] U5. CL 68/189 ing holes, and a driving member for said switching valve, [51] Int. CL whereby Said driving member y cause Said Switching valve [58] Field 'g 68/189 to rotate to change the relative position between each said liquopcommunicating aperture and each said liquor flowing [56] References Cited hole in said fixed partition and thus accomplish an adjustment UNITED STATES PATENTS in the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor fed by means of a pump.

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YOSHIKI' HoHRAI and KOZI FUZIYOSHI,

0 T A S o m I M INVENTORs BY Madam. vflm m,

ATTORNEY LIQUOR-CIRCULATING DEVICE IN A HIGH- TEMPERATURE AND HIGH-PRESSURE DYEING MACHINE The present invention relates to a liquor-circulating device in a hightemperature and high-pressure dyeing machine, and more particularly, to improvements in a liquor-circulating device in a dyeing machine wherein high-temperature and high-pressure liquor is circulated through a pressured vat within which is accommodated a support for supporting fabrics to be treated, and thereby a treatment such as dyeing, bleaching, etc. is carried out.

One of the principal objects of the present invention is to provide an improved liquor-circulating device in a high-temperature and high-pressure dyeing machine, which device is capable of simultaneously carrying out adjustments in the direction of flow and the flow rate of the circulating liquor through an operation of a single valve body.

Another principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved liquor-circulating device in a high-temperature and high-pressure dyeing machine, in which the fluid resistance and the heat radiation loss are suppressed to a minimum and thereby a high efficiency is obtained.

Another principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved liquor-circulating device in a high-temperature and high-pressure dyeing machine, in which any arbitrary flow rate adjustment of the liquor with respect to the fabrics to be treated may be obtained and also the unevenness of dyeing may be prevented.

In order to achieve the above-described objects, the liquorcirculating device in a high-temperature and high-pressure dyeing machine according to the present invention is characterized in that said device comprises a pump casing, a pressured vat connected to said casing, a perforated cylindrical support within said vat and having fabrics to be treated wound around its outer periphery, a fixed partition mounted between said pump casing and said pressured vat and having a pair of liquor flowing holes communicated respectively with the inside and outside of said cylindrical support, a switching valve provided within said pump casing and having a liquor delivery section and a liquor suction section, each of said sections including a liquor-communicating aperture shaped similarly and opposed to each of said liquor flowing holes, and a driving member for said switching valve, whereby said driving member may cause said switching valve to rotate to change the relative position between each said liquor-communicating aperture and each said liquor flowing hole in said fixed partition and thus accomplish an adjustment in the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor fed by means of a pump.

According to the present invention, it is possible to simultaneously adjust the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor to be circulated within the high-temperature and highpressure dyeing machine by manipulating the single switching valve mounted within said pump casing as described above, and consequently the structure of the liquor-circulating device may be greatly simplified and the cost for manufacturing the same may be saved.

Also, according to the present invention, it is possible to suppress the fluid resistance of the liquor and the heat radiation loss to a minimum by accommodating the pump, the switching valve and the flow rate adjusting device within the pump casing to entirely eliminate an outer piping, and thereby the efficiency of the device may be enhanced.

Still further, according to the present invention, it is possible to cause the liquor to pass through the fabrics to be treated uniformly over their entire surface to prevent the unevenness of dyeing, by disposing the perforated cylindrical support with the fabrics to be treated wound therearound within the pressured vat so that the directions of the axes of the both may coincide with each other and by connecting the pressured vat and the pump casing so that the directions of the axes of the respective ones may coincide with each other.

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description with respect to the preferred embodiment illustrated in the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross section view showing one preferred embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a transverse cross section view of the same taken along a line II-Ill in FIG. 1 as viewed in the direction of arrows, showing a valve position indicator means,

FIGS. 3 and 4 are transverse cross section views of the same taken along lines lIlIII and IV-IV, respectively, in FIG. I as viewed in the direction of arrows, showing the section for adjusting the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor,

FIG. 5 is a transverse cross section view of the same taken along a line V-V in FIG. 1 as viewed in the direction of arrows, and

FIG. 6 is a polar diagram showing the relation between the angular position of the valve body and the direction of flow as the flow rate of the liquor with respect to the fabrics to be treated.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings, one preferred embodiment of the present invention is illustrated as applied in a high-temperature and high-pressure beam dyeing machine.

A pressured vat provided with a removable lid 2 at its one end is shown at 1. A perforated cylindrical support 4 having fabrics 3 to be treated wound around its outer periphery, is disposed within the pressured vat 1 so as to have their axes aligned with each other.

At the other end of said pressured vat l, is disposed a fixed partition 5 having liquor flowing holes 511 and 5b of the same arcuated shape in its upper and lower sections, respectively, and on the respective sides of the flange portion of the partition 5 are connected the terminal flanges of said pressured vat l and the pump casing 6, respectively.

At an end of said perforated cylindrical support 4 is communicated a liquor conduit 7, the foremost end of which is connected to said fixed partition 5 so as to communicate with its liquor flowing hole 50, and said liquor conduit 7 is supported at a predetermined position by means of a rib 8 projecting from the inner peripheral wall of the pressured vat l and a flow-regulating plate as will be described later.

A spindle 10 supported at its one end by ribs 9 projecting from the inner periphery at the base portion of said liquor conduit 7, extends through the perforated cylindrical support 4 along its axis, and by means of a nut 11 threadedly engaged with the extremity of said extension, said support 4 is fixed at a predetermined position.

In FIGS. 1 and 5, a flow-regulating plate is shown at 12, which projects from the outer periphery of said liquor conduit 7 and is fixed at its both ends to the inner side wall of the pressured vat 1, and which serves to guide the liquor within the pressured vat l to the liquor flowing hole 5b in the fixed partition 5 and also serves to support said conduit 7 cooperatively with the rib 8. At 13 is shown a heat exchanger piping encircling said conduit 7.

Through said pump casing 6, is extended a main rotary shaft 15 which is connected to a driving shaft of a prime motor (not shown) via a joint 14, an impeller 16 being fixedly secured to the extremity of said main shaft 15, and a suction nozzle 18 is fixedly secured to guide vanes 7 provided radially on the inner wall of said casing 6.

At 19 is shown a valve body disposed within the pump casing 6 for adjusting the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor, which valve body consists of a suction bend 19a and a delivery guide 1% integrally mounted with the former. On the outer periphery of one end portion of the valve body 19 is mounted a worm gear 20, and the inner periphery of said one end portion is rotatably fitted around the suction nozzle 18. At the other end portion of the valve body 119, a boss of the valve body 19 is pivotably fitted to a headed valve shaft 21 which extends through the center of the fixed partition 5, and the respective open end portions of said suction bend 19a and delivery guide 1911, which have the same configuration as that of the respective liquid flowing holes 5a and 5b in said fixed partition 5, are opposed to the fixed partition 5 with a minute gap retained therebetween.

FIG. 2 shows driving and valve position indicating device for said valve body 19, in which the worm gear 20 mounted on said valve body 19 is meshed with a worm 25 affixed on a rotary shaft 24 which is connected through a joint 22 to a driving shaft of a low-speed and low inertia electric motor (not shown), extended through said casing 6 normally to the axial direction of the valve body 19, rotatably supported by bearings 23, 23, and thus rotated by any arbitrary angle electr'ically defined by said electric motor. A bevel gear 27 is fixedly secured to an extension of the rotary shaft 24 which extends into a gear case 26. Said bevel gear 27 is meshed with another bevel gear 29 on a rotary shaft 28 which is rotatably supported in said gear case 26. On said rotary shaft 28 is mounted a worm 29 which is meshed with a worm gear 31 mounted on a valve position pointer shaft 30 extending rotatably through said gear case 26, and a valve position pointer 33 is mounted on one end of said shaft 30 which penetrates through a dial plate 32 provided on the surface of the gear case 26.

At 34 is shown a pressure pump, on the delivery side of which is connected a pressured liquor conduit 35 communicated with the pressured vat, while on the suction side of which is connected a reservoir tank 37 through a conduit 36. The same reservoir tank 37 through a conduit 36. The same reservoir tank 37 is communicated with an overflow 39 of the pressured vat 1 through a cooler 38, so that excessive liquor within the pressured vat 1 at a predetermined pressure flows out of the overflow 39 and is then returned to the reservoir tank 37 via the cooler 38. In this connection, if a treatment agent is added into the reservoir tank 37, then simultaneously with the pressurizing of the water within the pressured vat l, the treatment agent is added to the same water. At 40 is shown a water feed port for the pressured vat 1.

The device according to the present invention can operate as follows:

After the lid 2 of the pressured vat 1 is closed, water is poured into the vat 1 from the water feed port 40 until it is filled with water. A treatment agent is added into the reservoir tank 37 and simultaneously the pressure pump 30 is operated to elevate the pressure within the pressured vat 1 and also to fill the same with treatment liquor. Then an excessive portion of the flow rate at a predetermined pressure is returned from the overflow 39 through the cooler 38 to the reservoir tank 37.

When the main circulating pump is operated, under the illustrated state of operation, the liquor passed through the fabrics 3 to be treated, is heated up while passing by the heat exchanger piping l3, guided by the guide plate 12 along the outer periphery of the conduit 9 to the liquor flowing hole 5b in the fixed partition 5, and then flows from the suction bend 19a of the valve body 19 through the suction nozzle 18 into the impeller 16 so as to be pumped up. The pumped liquor is delivered with a substantial rotational speed and efiiciently transformed into an axial flow by means of the guide vanes, and then flows into the perforated cylindrical support 4 through the delivery guide 1%, the liquor flowing hole 5a in the fixed partition 5 and the conduit 7, to permeate through the fabric 3 to be treated from its inside to its outside for carrying out the treatment.

Upon dyeing the fabrics 3 to be treated by means of the above-described device, in order to eliminate the unevenness of dyeing, it is required to enable to arbitrarily invert the direction of flow of the liquor with respect to the fabric to be treated between the direction from the inside of the fabric to its outside and the direction from its outside to its inside, and also to enable adjustment at any arbitrary moment of the flow rate of the liquor permeating through said fabric in accordance with the variation in volume of the fabric.

According to the present invention, the above-referred requirements are satisfied in a simple manner by rotation of a single valve body and adjustment of the established angular position of the same.

The operation for adjustment by means of said valve body will be described in detail in the below.

Referring to FIG. 3 of the drawing, a pair of arcuated liquor flowing holes 5a and 5b are provided in the fixed partition Sin its upper and lower sections, respectively, symmetrically with respect to a diameter A,A,'. The delivery guide 1% and the suction bend 19a of the valve body 19 are provided with communicating apertures in a opposed relationship to said liquor flowing holes, said communicating apertures having the same shape of open end portions on the same concentric circles as the liquor flowing holes 5a and 5b of the fixed partition 5. and they are disposed above and below a diameter A A in FIG. 4 symmetrically with respect to the diameter.

The valve body 19 is rotatably supported by the suction nozzle 18 and the valve shaft 21 in such manner that said open end portion of the valve body 19 and said fixed partition 5 are opposed to each other with a minute gap retained therebetween.

The valve body 19 is adapted to be rotated to any arbitrary angular position by operating the electric motor to rotate the rotary shaft 24 which in turn drives the worm 25 and the wonn gear 20.

The angular position of the valve body is indicated by the pointer 33 on the dial plate 32 provided on the surface of the gear case 26, since the rotation of the rotary shaft 24 is transmitted through the bevel gears 27 and 29 to the rotary shaft 28 which in turn rotates the valve position pointer shaft 30 via the worm 29 and the worm gear 31.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, when the valve body 29 is rotated to the position where the diameter B B aligns with the diameter A,A, of the fixed partition 5, the open end portion of the suction bend 19a of the valve body 19 communicates with both the liquor flowing holes 5a and 5b in the fixed partition 5, the cross section areas of the respective communication paths being equal to each other. The delivery guide 19b of the valve body 19 also communicates with both said liquor flowing holes 5a and 5b, and the cross section areas of the respective communication paths are equal to each other. Therefore, one-half of the liquor delivered by said delivery guide 19a is fed into said liquor flowing hole 5a and then sucked into the suction bend 19a communicating with said liquor flowing hole 5a, while the remaining one-half is fed into said liquor flowing hole 5b and then sucked into the suction bend 19a communicating with said liquor flowing hole 5b, and thus the liquor sucked into the suction bend 19a passes through the suction nozzle 18 to the impeller 16 and then is pumped up to be fed again to the delivery guide 19a under pressure. Under the above-mentioned condition, the entire flow of the liquor is short circuited in its circulation path, resulting in zero flow rate permeating through the fabric.

Starting from the above-mentioned zero state of the flow rate permeating through the fabric, that is, the state where A, is opposed to B and A, is opposed to B,,', as the valve body 19 is rotated in the clockwise direction as viewed from the side of the impeller 16, the cross section area of the part of the open end portion of said delivery guide 19b communicating with said liquor flowing hole 5a is increased, while the cross section area of the part communicating with said liquor flowing hole 5b is decreased.

On the other band, the cross section area of the part of the open end portion of said suction bend 19a communicating with said liquor flowing hole 5b is then increased, while the cross section area of the part communicating with said liquor flowing hole 5a is decreased.

As a result of the mutual relation between the cross section areas of the communication paths, the liquor can permeate through the fabric from its inside to its outside, the flow rate permeating through the fabric being increased as the angle of rotation of the valve body 19 is increased until B, is opposed to B and B, is opposed to B, where the maximum flow rate is obtained.

Starting from the state where A, is opposed to B and A, is opposed to B if the valve body 19 is rotated in the anticlockwise direction as viewed from the side of the impeller 16, the relation between the angle of rotation and the cross section area of said communication path is similar to the above-mentioned case of clockwise rotation, but the direction of flow is reversed in contrast to the case of clockwise rotation, so that the liquor can permeate through the fabric from its outside to its inside, the flow rate permeating through the fabric being increased as the angle of rotation of the valve body 19 is increased until B, is opposed to B and B, is opposed to B where the maximum inverse flow rate is obtained.

In FIG. 6 is shown in polar diagram representing the abovedescribed relation between the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor between the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor with respect to the fabric versus the angle of rotation of the valve body 19. In this diagram, a horizontal line A,-A,,,' and a vertical line B,B,' represent the positions corresponding to the diameters A,A, and B,-B,', respectively, of the fixed partition 5, and concentric circles C represent the flow rate of the liquor permeating through the fabric.

As is seen from this polar diagram, when the end of diameter B of the valve body 19 is placed at the position A, in FIG. 3, said permeating flow rate is zero. As the end of diameter B is rotated from the point 0 (A,) through 1 2,, 3,, to 4,, said flow rate is increased until it takes the maximum value of 4 If the end of diameter B is further moved from 4,, through 3,, 2,, 1,, to 0 (A,'), said flow rate is decreased until it becomes zero at the point 0'. When said end of diameter B is placed in a region (I) extending from 0 through I 2,, 3,, 4,, 3 2 1,, to 0', the direction of the permeating flow is from the inside of the fabric to its outside. When the end of diameter B, is moved over a region (II) extending from 0 through 1,, 2,, 3,, 4,, 3,, 2 l, to 0', the direction of the permeating flow is from the outside of the fabric to its inside, and the permeating flow rate takes the maximum value at the point 4,. In FIG. 6, a curve (D) represents the flow rate of the liquor permeating through the fabric as a function of the angular position of the valve body 19.

As will be apparent from the above description, the flow rate of the liquor permeating through the fabric can take any arbitrary value between zero and the maximum value with respect to either one of the directions of flow, from the inside of the fabric to its outside, or from its outside to its inside, by merely rotating the valve body 19. In other words, the flow rates of the liquor permeating through the fabric from its inside to its outside, and from its outside to its inside may be chosen either equal to each other or different from each other. Thus, the circulating flow rate of the liquor may be adapted to the conditions of the fabrics to be treated, regardless of the direction of permeation. Therefore, excellently finished products may be obtained.

While the present invention has been described above with reference to its preferred embodiment, it is intended that the present invention should not be limited to the particular embodiment and many changes in design could be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

What is claimed is;

1. A liquor-circulating device in a high-temperature and high-pressure dyeing machine characterized in that said device comprises a pump casing, a pressured vat connected to said casing, a perforated cylindrical support within said vat and having fabrics to be treated wound around its outer periphery, a fixed partition mounted between said pump casing and said pressured vat and having a pair of liquor flowing holes communicating respectively with the inside and outside of said cylindrical support, a switching valve provided within said pump casing and having a liquor delivery section and a liquor suction section, each of said sections including a liquorcommunicating aperture shaped similarly and opposed to each of said liquor flowing holes, and a driving member for said switching valve, whereby said driving member may cause said switching valve to rotate to change the relative position between said each liquor-communicating aperture and said each li uor flowing hole in said fixed partition and thus accomplisii an adjustment in the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor fed by means of a pump.

2. A device according to claim 1, in which said switching valve comprises a suction bend and a delivery guide mounted integrally with the former, their respective open end portions being constructed in a shape coincident with said pair of liquor flowing holes in said fixed partition provided at positions corresponding to said open end portions, and the respective ends of said switching valve are rotatably mounted in said fixed partition and in a suction guide provided within said pump casing, respectively.

3. A device according to claim 1, in which gear teeth are provided around the outer periphery of said switching valve body, and another gear to be meshed with said gear teeth is mounted on a driving rotary shaft which rotatably extends through said pump casing.

4. A device according to claim 3, in which an indicator device for displaying the angular position of said switching valve body is mounted, by the intermediary of gear train means, on the driving rotary shaft which rotatably extends through said pump casing and which is provided with a gear meshing with the gear teeth around said switching valve body.

5. A device according to claim 1, in which one end of said perforated cylindrical support provided within said pressured vat and the liquor flowing hole in said fixed partition are connected to each other by means of a liquor conduit.

6. A device according to claim 5, in which a heat exchanger piping is provided within said pressured vat encircling said liquor conduit. 

1. A liquor-circulating device in a high-temperature and highpressure dyeing machine characterized in that said device comprises a pump casing, a pressured vat connected to said casing, a perforated cylindrical support within said vat and having fabrics to be treated wound around its outer periphery, a fixed partition mounted between said pump casing and said pressured vat and having a pair of liquor flowing holes communicating respectively with the inside and outside of said cylindrical support, a switching valve provided within said pump casing and having a liquor delivery section and a liquor suction section, each of said sections including a liquor-communicating aperture shaped similarly and opposed to each of said liquor flowing holes, and a driving member for said switching valve, whereby said driving member may cause said switching valve to rotate to change the relative position between said each liquorcommunicating aperture and said each liquor flowing hole in said fixed partition and thus accomplish an adjustment in the direction of flow and the flow rate of the liquor fed by means of a pump.
 2. A device according to claim 1, in which said switching valve comprises a suction bend and a delivery guide mounted integrally with the former, their respective open end portions being constructed in a shape coincident with said pair of liquor flowing holes in said fixed partition provided at positions corresponding to said open end portions, and the respective ends of sAid switching valve are rotatably mounted in said fixed partition and in a suction guide provided within said pump casing, respectively.
 3. A device according to claim 1, in which gear teeth are provided around the outer periphery of said switching valve body, and another gear to be meshed with said gear teeth is mounted on a driving rotary shaft which rotatably extends through said pump casing.
 4. A device according to claim 3, in which an indicator device for displaying the angular position of said switching valve body is mounted, by the intermediary of gear train means, on the driving rotary shaft which rotatably extends through said pump casing and which is provided with a gear meshing with the gear teeth around said switching valve body.
 5. A device according to claim 1, in which one end of said perforated cylindrical support provided within said pressured vat and the liquor flowing hole in said fixed partition are connected to each other by means of a liquor conduit.
 6. A device according to claim 5, in which a heat exchanger piping is provided within said pressured vat encircling said liquor conduit. 